Girl, 12, Won`t Go To Jail Judge Keeps Her In Juvenile Center

April 7, 1989|By LARRY KELLER and PATTI ROTH, Staff Writers

To cheers in a packed courtroom, a Broward judge on Thursday ruled that 12- year-old Arva Betts, charged with strangling her half brother and choking her half sister, should not be confined with adult inmates at the county jail while she awaits trial.

Betts was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday and charged as an adult with second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. Andrew Caesar, 2, died of his injuries, and Tiffany Caesar, 15 months, is in critical but stable condition. The attacks occurred on March 13, four days before Betts` 12th birthday.

At Thursday`s hearing, packed with news media and the curious, Broward Circuit Judge Mel Grossman granted a request by Betts` lawyer, Johnny McCray Jr., that she be allowed to remain at the Broward Regional Juvenile Detention Center pending trial.

The courtroom erupted in applause.

In a related development, the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has asked the Broward County State Attorney`s Office to file charges against Betts` mother.

After an investigation, HRS concluded that the mother, Sally Butterfield, 30, of Wilton Manors, failed to get psychological or psychiatric counseling for Betts and failed to protect her two younger children, agency sources said.

Butterfield often left the younger children in Betts` care while the mother worked long hours as a nurse`s aide. Police surmised that the fourth-grade honor student could not cope with caring for her young siblings, and snapped.

Clad in detention center blue shirt and shorts, Betts entered and exited the courtroom meekly during Thursday`s hearing. She sat quietly in a chair, facing Grossman with her head down. She was not asked to speak.

McCray said that placing the child with adults in the county jail would expose her to ``hardened criminals.``

Assistant State Attorney Mindy Solomon said that if Betts was jailed, she would be segregated from adult inmates.

``The fact that she wouldn`t be placed among her peers may cause her irreparable harm,`` McCray said.

McCray presented two witnesses who also urged Grossman to let Betts remain in juvenile custody. Alejo Vada, a Broward County court psychologist, said Betts told him on Tuesday that she thinks about suicide.

``Now if you take a child like that and put her in an adult prison, that would be bad,`` he said. ``I am afraid she may harm herself.``

After the hearing, McCray said he might ask the court to release Betts on bail.

``She wants to go home,`` he said.

The lawyer said his client would plead innocent to the charges.

``I think this is a winnable case,`` he said.

Since Betts was indicted, McCray said, his office has received several calls from people offering to adopt Betts or act as foster parents to her.

``Some individuals are outraged this case ever was taken to the grand jury,`` he said.

On Thursday night, Butterfield said little about the ordeal and how her oldest daughter is handling it.

``All I`ve got to say is I love the baby (Betts), and she is mine,`` Butterfield said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. immigration official said on Thursday that deportation proceedings against Butterfield and Betts will not be pursued until Betts` case is resolved in court. This is so the family will not be split up, said Arthur Bullock, supervising agent with the U.S. Border Patrol in Pembroke Pines.

An investigation by the Border Patrol revealed that Butterfield is an illegal alien from the Turks and Caicos Islands. The mother was admitted to the United States on a six-month visitor visa in 1983, and was supposed to leave in December of that year.

``She didn`t. She`s been here unlawfully ever since,`` Bullock said.

The Border Patrol thinks Betts was smuggled into the country sometime after Butterfield arrived, Bullock said. The other two children were born in the United States.

The maximum penalties Betts faces if convicted as charged are life in prison for second-degree murder and 15 years in prison for child abuse.

But even if convicted, she would not necessarily spend any time in a state prison. Under the state`s Youthful Offender Act, judges can sentence youngsters with previously clean records to house arrest, probation or some other form of punishment in non-capital crimes.

The program enables youthful offenders to obtain counseling, complete their education and remain isolated from older inmates, Assistant State Attorney Susan Aramony said.

``She could get probation,`` Aramony said. ``Theoretically, she could get life. Anything can happen.``